MIA: ‘I was personally invited to hear Julian Assange speak’

MIA has revealed that she was personally invited to hear Julian Assange’s speech from the Ecuadorian embassy in London over the weekend.

The rapper was able to gain access to the building unseen and post the day’s only images of Assange taken from inside the building on her Twitter page. She also posted a series of links flagging up pro-Assange footage on YouTube, which have since been taken down.

MIA was linked with the WikiLeaks founder earlier this year when she composed the theme music to his TV show The World Tomorrow. “I am a big fan,” she said of the activist, who is facing allegations of sexual assault in Sweden but has not been charged, to the London Evening Standard. “I don’t really believe the rape charges.”

The singer has courted controversy on many occasions in the past. Earlier this year she became embroiled in an online row with CNN presenter Anderson Cooper over her political stance on Sri Lanka following Channel 4 documentary Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields: War Crimes Unpublished.

She was also rapped for raising her middle finger during her performance with Madonna during this year’s Super Bowl.

Assange made his first public statement since entering the Ecuadorian embassy on Saturday (August 19). He urged the US to end its “witch-hunt” against WikiLeaks and he called for the release of Bradley Manning, who is awaiting trial in the US accused of leaking classified documents to the WikiLeaks site.

Assange faces extradition to Sweden over sexual assault claims, which he denies.